Table of Contents
Getting Comfortable with the Interface
When you first open Roblox Studio, the screen can feel crowded. Understanding where Explorer, Properties, and the Toolbox are, and what they do, is the key to making the whole editor feel simple and under your control. In this chapter you will learn what each of these panels is for, how they relate to each other, and how to move them around so that Roblox Studio fits the way you like to work.
You will not learn every feature of Studio here. Instead, you will learn how to think about these three core panels, since you will use them constantly in almost every step of building and scripting your games.
Explorer: Seeing Everything in Your Game
The Explorer is the panel that shows a tree of every object in your game. It is usually on the right side of Roblox Studio. If you ever close it by accident, you can reopen it from the menu bar at the top by choosing View and then clicking Explorer.
Inside the Explorer, everything appears as a hierarchy. At the top of the tree you see services such as Workspace, Players, and Lighting. Inside each service you see child objects. For example, inside Workspace you might see Part, Model, or Folder objects. This tree is not only a list. It is a map of how Roblox actually organizes your game while it runs.
Each item in the Explorer can be selected by clicking on it. When you select it, it becomes the active object for many other tools in Studio. If you select a part, you can move it in the 3D view. If you select a script, you can open it in the script editor. If you select a folder, you can see all the objects inside that folder in the tree and also create new children inside it.
You can expand and collapse items in the Explorer by clicking the small arrow next to them. This is useful when your game grows and you need to hide details you are not working on right now. You can right click on many objects in the Explorer to see context actions such as Rename, Delete, Duplicate, Group, or Insert Object. As your project grows, you will spend a lot of time right clicking here to organize and manage your content.
Another important use of the Explorer is to see the parent and child relationships between objects. If you drag an object in the Explorer and drop it onto another object, you are changing its parent. For example, if you drag a Part into a Model, it becomes a child of that model. This affects how Roblox treats that part, for example when moving or cloning the model. The Explorer is the clearest way to see and edit these relationships.
If you ever lose track of something in the 3D world, you can select it in the Explorer and press the F key. Studio will focus the camera on the selected object. This simple connection between Explorer and the 3D viewport makes it much easier to navigate complex scenes.
The Explorer does not just show your game, it controls how your game is organized. Changing parents and deleting items in the Explorer permanently changes the structure of your game until you undo or revert.
Properties: Fine Control over Selected Objects
The Properties panel always shows details for whatever you have selected. Like the Explorer, it is usually on the right side of the screen. If it is missing, open it from the View tab by clicking Properties. Explorer tells you what exists. Properties tells you how the selected thing behaves and looks.
When you click an object in the Explorer or in the 3D view, its properties appear in a list. These are grouped into categories such as Data, Appearance, Behavior, or Surface. Each row in the Properties panel is a property with a name and a value. Some values are numbers, some are text, some are checkboxes, some open small dialogs such as a color picker.
For example, if you select a simple Part in the Explorer, you might see properties like Name, BrickColor, Material, Position, Size, Anchored, and CanCollide. Changing values in the Properties panel updates the object immediately. If you edit the Name, that new name also appears in Explorer. If you change Size, you will see the part change size in the 3D view.
The Properties panel is the most precise way to adjust objects. Moving a part with the mouse is quick but not exact. Typing numbers in the Size and Position properties gives you controlled results. If you need a part that is exactly $4$ studs wide, you can type 4 in the correct field. If you want two parts to share the same color, you can copy the color from one and assign it exactly to another.
Some properties are not immediately obvious. For example, many objects have a Parent property. Changing this property is similar to dragging the object to a different place in the Explorer tree. Scripts, user interfaces, lights, and many other object types also have their own special properties. You do not need to understand them all at once. At first, you only need to know that the Properties panel is where you go when you want to adjust how something behaves or appears.
The Properties and Explorer panels work together. You choose what object to work with in the Explorer, and you change what that object does in Properties. If you click empty space in the 3D view, the selection clears and the Properties panel usually shows nothing or shows properties for the service you have clicked. If you are not sure what you are editing, look at both the top of the Properties panel and the highlight in the Explorer to confirm your selection.
Always check what is selected before changing properties. If you have multiple objects selected, a property change will apply to all of them at once, which can cause unexpected results.
Toolbox: Finding and Managing Assets
The Toolbox is the panel where you can search for and insert assets such as models, images, meshes, and audio. It is often located on the left side of Roblox Studio. If it is hidden, you can open it by clicking Toolbox in the View tab.
At the top of the Toolbox there is usually a search bar. You can type a word or phrase here, such as tree, house, or button, to find matching assets. Below the search bar, there are tabs or filters that let you choose which category of assets you want to view. Common categories include Models, Images, Meshes, Audio, and sometimes Plugins or Packages.
When you click on the Models category and search for something, the Toolbox shows a grid of models that other creators have published to Roblox. You can scroll through them, click an item to see more details, and insert it into your game by clicking on it. When you insert a model, it appears in the 3D world and also in the Explorer, usually as a Model object under Workspace.
The Toolbox can also show your own creations. There are often sections like Inventory or My Models where you can find assets you have saved to your account. This is very useful when you work across multiple games and want to reuse your own work. When you insert one of your own assets, you know exactly how it was created and can adjust it freely.
Because many assets are uploaded by other players, you must treat content from the public Toolbox with care. Some objects may contain scripts that you do not need or that can cause unwanted behavior. After you insert something, it is good practice to look at it in the Explorer and open any scripts inside it so that you understand what they do. If you find assets you like but do not trust all of their parts, you can also remove or replace scripts and keep only the models or images.
The Toolbox is also the easiest way to add images and sounds to your game if you have uploaded them to Roblox. In the Images tab, you can find decals and textures and drag them onto parts or UI elements. In the Audio tab, you can insert sound objects into your game that can then be played with scripts or configured directly through the Properties panel.
Never rely on Toolbox items as if they are automatically safe or efficient. Always inspect inserted assets in the Explorer and Properties panels, and remove scripts or parts that you do not understand.
Rearranging and Customizing Your Workspace
Explorer, Properties, and the Toolbox are dockable panels. You can drag their title bars to move them around the screen. When you drag a panel, Studio shows shaded areas where you can drop it to dock it to an edge or combine it with another panel as a tab.
For example, you might want Explorer and Properties to sit side by side on the right, or as tabs in a single area to save space. You might prefer the Toolbox on the bottom so you see more of the 3D view. The exact layout is not fixed. You can experiment and find the arrangement that feels fastest and most natural to you.
If you ever drag panels and end up with a messy layout, you can reset the view. In the View tab, Studio includes options such as Reset View or similar layout reset commands, which restore the default positions for these panels. This is helpful when you are still learning and are not sure where a panel went.
These three panels connect to almost everything else you will do in Roblox Studio. You will select and organize with Explorer, tune and inspect with Properties, and bring in content with the Toolbox. Once you are comfortable with them, the rest of Studio will feel much more approachable, since most tools you will use are built around this basic workflow of selecting, configuring, and inserting objects.